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Mental illness is a huge problem, with globally more than 300 million suffering from depression alone. Yet so many of us choose to believe it is all a sham.
In the world today, mental illnesses are reaching record high figures, yet we lack the common understanding of considering mental illness a disability. As a matter of fact, it is a leading disability, battled by people all around the globe, on a daily basis and yet, it is made fun of and discredited in terms of ‘not being a real illness’ in our country.
What each one of us needs to know are a few facts and figures, in order to set our minds straight.
More than 300 million people suffer from clinical depression and 260 million suffer from anxiety, globally. While, 42 million suffer from both. 90% of suicides committed in the world are by those who had an underlying mental illness. Are these figures enough or should we continue in order to make our point?
To make matters worse, people surrounding the ones battling depression, a lot of times just add the cherry on top of the cake. How you ask? By saying the most demeaning and ridiculous things one could say to someone fighting mental illness.
The thumb rule is, if you aren’t supportive of it, at least don’t be disrespectful towards it. The worst thing you can do is to disregard a person’s serious condition, illness, or whatever you choose to call it.
Below are a few of the worst things ever said to people with mental illnesses that I have curated from Twitter and other social media sources. I would not like to name them, as they would like to keep these confessions anonymous.
So, what is the deal with us and our society? I think the ones dealing with these insecurities aren’t the ones who are broken but those of us who don’t understand their condition and pass judgemental remarks are. Wouldn’t you advise a friend or a family member to see a doctor if they had a heart condition or a fracture? Or would you still say “it’s all in your head!”, “Snap out of it!”, “Be optimistic and think more about happy stuff!”, would you?
It’s high time, we realize that mental illness is no joke, there are people dying of it each day, everyday. It’s a serious business. It’s a serious illness that needs professional help and medicines and counselling.
All We ask for you to is be open to the idea of mental illness, if there’s someone around you, who looks dull or sad, talk to them. If anyone you know is battling with anxiety or depression or any other form of mental illness, help them in getting counselling and seeking professional help, or just BE THERE. You owe it to the planet you live with the people you live among!
What are your thoughts on mental illness?
Image source: shutterstock
A Marketer by the day and a Writer by the night. Books, music, beaches, and french fries make her happy. A hardcore feminist and a hopeless romantic, trying to maneuver her way through the 21st read more...
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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